2-4-1 companion voucher first class?
 

So I have a lot of avios points and before xmas decided to get a BA Amex card and am about to hit the target to receive the 2 for 1 companion voucher. I remember seeing some blogs where people had used it to travel in first and was wondering if anyone has any idea how as there only ever seems to be 1 first class reward seat available. I guess it could be that at some point on certain flights they release more First seats but just wondering if anyone can shed anymore light on this as my aim would be to use it to go first class as on a lot of flights its the same cost in taxes as club but just a few more miles.


Has anyone had any experience on this or any advice?:cool:

Boston, NYC, Kuala Lumpur, Nairobi & Tel Aviv are all places I've managed to use a 241 in First without too much trouble. The Reward Flight Finder on the BA App is pretty useful (by BA IT standards). Note that there is no guarantee of seats like the 4Y & 2J so often they won't appear at T-355 so you need to keep checking regularly if you have specific locations/dates in mind

Lots of people use the 241s to fly first class. While BA does not guarantee to first class redemption seats on every flight they do guarantee 2 club world seats. You should book those when they come available and when first class seats open up call in and change your booking to first class.
See these threads:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...re-better.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r-advance.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...g-2-4-1-a.html

I guess it depends where you want to go and when and how far you manage to book in advance. I have used 2-4-1 vouchers to fly First to Vancouver, Delhi, Grenada (x2) and Los Angeles - generally more than 1 seat available when I have searched.

I've successfully used the 2-4-1 vouchers to fly in First to San Francisco, Johannesburg, Cape Town and New York on standard availability normally without too much fettling around of dates (got lucky with Cape Town I think!). I find Expertflyer quite useful in finding available reward seats in general to grab for upgrade purposes so that might be of some use.

Last we we redeemed for First, we secured three seats to Toronto. We went in the summer holidays when I wouldn't have expected availability.

Persevere, I've never had any issues booking F. I seem to find more F availability than J these days

Just to add my words of encouragement to the others...

My thread is the last in jerry a. laska's list of links above.

I have an upcoming trip LHR-LAS LAX-LHR flying out in F

I booked it with a 2-4-1 last May for this May and bagged 2 in F. Currently in J on way back but have Expertflyer alert set up to check for F seats

Just keep trying - seats do often get released and for F this is often sporadic

^

We have just completed a 2-4-1 First outbound to Tokyo and Business home as there was no First availability back to LHR. I did notice that both F and C were less than half full on the return but the NRT-LHR sector is a daytime flight so we were very pleased with the whole package

I got a pair of F seats return to JNB in late August quite recently on a 2-4-1, they definitely exist...if anything I'd say they're easier to find than before...

Can you provide more details re when you're thinking of going, and where ?

There's lots of places almost a year out with very generous F availability.... Have you a destination or aircraft preference ?

Mexico City always seems to have loads of F availability

As others have said, there is certainly availability so it is by no means impossible. My mum has been pretty successful in booking F returns to Rio, Cape Town, Phoenix/San Francisco and Johannesburg. On the other hand I was looking at Thailand for Christmas by couldn't get availability in F or J on the dates I wanted to a location near enough to make it worthwhile connecting.

The key thing is she is more flexible on dates being retired, whereas I am restricted to school holidays. You need to think not just about the destination but the region - if you were looking at LAS and there was only 1 seat available, you could go to LAX/SFO/OAK/SAN/PHX (not necessarily in F) and connect from there which gives you lots of options.

The other thing is to keep looking, as availability changes. 2 J seats are always released T-355days, but they often open up more F seats later on.

Finally, sometimes you just get lucky - I have a wedding in DC on a Sunday in August, and must be in the UK on the Monday morning; I looked up flights and the one I wanted just so happened to have F and J availability. I booked F out and J back, then upgraded to F both ways when I got more miles from flying and the availability was still there. :D

I managed to get 4 first class tickets on the better timed flight to Mumbai last month. It IS possible, but like others have said, not guaranteed

San Jose (California) is another sweet spot if booking far out - although only an 8F cabin, it's often got 3/4 F seats... a great aircraft as well as decent timings and a very easy airport experience.. also leaving from T5 which is an advantage (to some!)